The American Heart Association (AHA) gives accreditations to health care facilities, which have attained the required standards of STEMI patients’ treatment. The AHA gives a variety of accreditations to varied hospitals. Some of the accreditations issued by the AHA include heart check hospitals, heart attack (STEMI) referring center accreditation, heart attack (STEMI) receiving center accreditation, and comprehensive stroke center certification.
The American Heart Association has collaborated with other accrediting organizations to set standards for hospitals that provide cardiovascular diseases services for more than three decades. A perfect example is the American College of Cardiology Foundation, which has collaborated with the association since 1980. The two organizations have worked together to set practice guidelines and to give accreditation to health care facilities that comply with the given guidelines (O’Gara et al., 2013).
The American Heart Association recommends that D2B times should be less than 90 minutes (Wilson et al., 2013). As such, the outcomes for STEMI patients can be augmented. Additionally, the AHA has linked reduced mortality rates to lowering D2B times. Therefore, the American Heart Association gives accreditations to health care facilities that strive to employ evidence-based strategies to make the D2B times as short as possible.
Other than giving accreditations to hospitals that comply with guidelines, the AHA collaborates with other accreditation bodies to identify and recommend evidence-based strategies to reduce the D2B times. The strategies comprise multidisciplinary approaches involving multiple departments. As such, the AHA provides applicable strategies, which can be summarized into simple but effective guidelines.
First, the AHA recommends that the catheterization laboratory (cath lab) must be operational at all times and should have the necessary equipment to be activated during emergencies. Additionally, the cath lab should be easily activated with as few calls as possible (one call). Second, the cath lab team must always be prepared to respond to emergencies and should respond in not more than 30 minutes. Third, data feedback systems should be as effective as possible. Fourth, the AHA recommends that all STEMI accredited hospitals’ senior management must be fully committed to efficiency in reducing D2B times and augmented outcomes of STEMI patients (Langabeer et al., 2015). Lastly, the AHA recommends that team-based approaches should be adopted to deal with all cardiovascular diseases, especially in reducing the D2B times in STEMI patients.
Moreover, the American Heart Association is an effective accrediting organization since it is actively involved in cardiovascular issues. First, the AHA is proactive as it educates the public on the need for healthy lifestyle standards, which studies have linked to reduced STEMI cases (Stoner, Stoner, Young, & Fryer, 2012). In fact, the AHA association is the leading health accrediting organization in CPR education training (Lim, Lian, Tan, Chan, & Leong, 2013). AHA provides scientific-based techniques in STEMI patients’ health care delivery to medical practitioners. Additionally, the AHA educates policymakers and lawmakers on the need to allocate sufficient resources to STEMI hospitals.
Further, the AHA has heavily invested in research on STEMI patients and other cardiovascular diseases. The organization is among the leading organizations (outside the federal government) in funding cardiovascular diseases research, spending more than $3.8 billion (Laslett et al., 2012).
Decisively, it is evident that the AHA is a pertinent accrediting organization in the reducing of the D2B times in STEMI patients. As seen in this essay, the AHA collaborates with other bodies to provide research-based recommendations and evidence-based strategies to reduce D2B times to less than 90 minutes. The AHA also inspects all hospitals applying for endorsement before issuing the appropriate accreditations. Lastly, the AHA has invested in the commitment to ensuring the best outcomes in STEMI patients and cardiovascular diseases in general.
.
References
Langabeer, J., Alqusairi, D., DelliFraine, J. L., Fowler, R., King, R., Segrest, W., & Henry, T. (2015). Reassessing After-Hour Arrival Patterns and Outcomes in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction. West Journal Emergency Medicine, 16(3), 388–394. Web.
Laslett, L. J., Alagona, P., Clark, B. A., Drozda, J. P., Saldivar, F., Wilson, S. R.,… Hart, M. (2012). The Worldwide Environment of Cardiovascular Disease: Prevalence, Diagnosis, Therapy, and Policy Issues. Journal American College of Cardiology, 60(25), 1-49. Web.
Lim, S. L., Lian, T., Tan, P. T., Chan, Y. H., & Leong, B. (2013). Session Title: Best Original Resuscitation Science Poster Session and Reception. American Heart Association Journal, 128(22), 128-146.
O’Gara, P., Kushner, F., Ascheim, D., Casey, D., Chung, M., Lemos, J.,… Zhao, D. (2013). 2013 ACCF/AHA Guideline for the Management of ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: A Report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. Journal of The American College of Cardiology, 61(4), 78-140. Web.
Stoner, L., Stoner, K. R., Young, J. M., & Fryer, S. (2012). Preventing a Cardiovascular Disease Epidemic among Indigenous Populations through Lifestyle Changes. International Journal of Preventive Medicine, 3(4), 230–240.
Wilson, B. H., Humphrey, A. D., Cedarholm, J. C., Downey, W. E., Haber, R. H., Kowalchuk, G. J.,… Garvey, L. (2013). Achieving Sustainable First Door-to-Balloon Times of 90 Minutes for Regional Transfer ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction. Journal of American Cardiovascular Interventions, 6(10), 1064-1071. Web.